AMERICAN EMBASSY'S ROLE IN THE 1973 BOMBING IN CAMBODIA

Published: March 1, 1982

To the Editor:

Sydney Schanberg places a false interpretation on the Cooper-Church amendment when he says in his column that it prohibited American military personnel in our embassy in Phnom Penh from coordinating American air strikes and that, accordingly, the bombing was ''in direct, brazen violation'' of that law.

In 1969-70, I was counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on military commitments, and as such followed closely the enactment of the Cooper-Church amendment.

As finally enacted, it permitted American bombing in Cambodia and the provision of American military supplies to the Cambodian Government forces.

Those who drafted and guided that legislation through the Senate were well aware of, and influenced by, the then-existing American military program in neighboring Laos. They well knew that bombing would require, as in Laos, American coordinators on the ground. And in Laos they were out in the field, not back in the embassy, as in Cambodia. These senators also knew that the supply of equipment would require the stationing of some Americans in the country to process this flow of materiel.

Finally, in his outcry against the number of civilian casualties and refugees caused by the bombing (he lumps together those killed and those displaced and comes up with ''thousands''), I hope he is not ignoring the millions killed in Cambodia by the other side after the Congress chose to terminate the bombing. ROLAND A. PAUL, Westport, Conn., Feb. 10, 1982